E3 2010: NHL 11 Brings The Noise

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We finally hit the ice with full five-on-five hockey.

By Nate Ahearn

While it's true that we just previewed NHL 11 one week ago, now that I've played full five-on-five hockey for myself, I thought a quick update on the game's progress was warranted. So while we were previously confined to one-on-one hockey in order to properly demo the snazzy new physics that govern all of the on-ice action, EA Sports took off the restraints and opened it up to a full game of hockey for E3.

I was certainly impressed with the new physics capabilities in my first NHL 11 demo, and that feeling only grew once I got into a real game. Checks look fantastic, especially when the boards get involved. Players realistically roll and glance off of the boards, depending on the strength of the impact I was able to land. But the physics weren't confined to just interactions between players and the environment, they also seemed to perform well when two players collided on open ice. Everything feels like a real object with very little clipping taking place. One time I upended a player, only to have his leg get caught for a split-second under my arm. Not in an unnatural way, either. Just about everything looked exactly as it should.

In order to combat all of this crazy checking action, the developers from EA's Vancouver studio have given players a new quick deke ability. The mechanics are extraordinarily easy. All you have to do is hold the left shoulder button and flick the right analog stick to the right or left and your guy will pull off a deke. Of course, as soon as I successfully pulled off my first deke, I tried to take a wrist shot and wound up snapping my stick. It was a little disgruntling, but it was still pretty damn cool.

The final addition to NHL 11 to make its way into EA Sports' E3 demo was user-controlled celebrations. By using both the face buttons and triggers, players can access a large library of goal celebrations. The one I saw was essentially a guy sliding face-first down on the ice, hands outstretched. I was told there were plenty more to be had, but that's all I saw in my short demo at E3.

We'll have more info on NHL 11 as it becomes available. The game is scheduled to launch on September 14 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.